Ensuring Access to Safe, Healthy Childbirth Options: You Can Help!

It’s not too late to add your name or your organization’s name to our “One Voice” letter to Dr. Richard Waldman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Visit http://www.motherfriendly.org today!

More than 550 co-signing individuals and organizations have already joined CIMS in urging ACOG to remove additional barriers to VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). This request follows the March 2010 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Statement on VBAC, which found that VBAC is a reasonable choice for the majority of affected women. Specifically, we’re urging ACOG to revise its current recommendation that VBACs should take place in hospitals where emergency cesareans are "immediately available," which the NIH concluded was not based on strong support from high-quality evidence and had influenced about one-third of hospitals and one-half of physicians to stop providing care for women who wanted to plan a VBAC. For additional information and resources, visit the CIMS website.

Add your name or your organization's name now at http://www.motherfriendly.org. CIMS will collect the names of additional organizations and individuals in support of this request through October 31, 2010, and will send the updated list of co-signers to Dr. Waldman.